Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde took oath as the new chief minister of Maharashtra on Thursday evening bringing curtain down on the over a week long political drama in the state. In a major twist in the climax, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was widely reported to be the next CM, took oath as the deputy chief minister.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath of office to them at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai shortly after 7.30 pm.
Earlier, Fadnavis and Shinde met the Governor in the afternoon and staked claim to form the government, a day after Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray resigned as the chief minister soon after the Supreme Court refused to give a stay to the floor test in the Assembly. The collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was imminent since Shinde rebelled against the Sena leadership and left Mumbai with a sizable number of legislators.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated both Shinde and Fadnavis and expressed confidence that they will take the state to greater heights.
Addressing a press meet at Raj Bhawan after meeting the Governor, Fadnavis launched a scathing attack on the Thackeray camp and said the Shiv Sena insulted the mandate of the people in 2019 and formed alliance with those who are against Hindutva and Veer Savarkar.
Fadnavis said in 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena had an alliance and it got required numbers in the Assembly elections. “We hoped to form the government, but Shiv Sena chose to get into an alliance with those against whom Balasaheb protested throughout his life,” he said.
Fadnavis said he would stay out of the new government, but later in the evening he “accepted” the BJP central leadership's “request” to take over the deputy CM post just minutes before the swearing-in.
Shinde, while addressing the press meet with Fadnavis, thanked the former CM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for offering him the CM post. He claimed to have the support of 50 MLAs and said that their decision to join hands with the BJP to form the government is committed to Balasaheb's Hindutva and for the development work in the constituencies of our MLAs.
Shinde reached Mumbai this morning after the governor ordered a floor test in the Assembly. Though the Thackeray camp had moved the Supreme Court against this order, the court refused to give a stay but said the outcome of the proceedings will be subject to the final verdict on the petition. Minutes after the court order, Thackeray submitted his resignation.